3 Stocks That Turned $1,000 into $1 Million (or More)

Many investors believe that if you want to amass a true fortune in the stock market, you need to start with a sizable sum of money. And to be fair, the more cash you begin with, the easier it is to do so.

Nevertheless, it's absolutely possible to turn a fairly small amount of starting capital into a seven-figure sum. Plenty of stocks have turned a mere $1,000 into more than $1 million, in fact. The key is simply picking the right stocks and then sticking with them long enough to let their underlying companies reach their full potential.

Here's a rundown of three familiar names that have done the deed. See if you can spot what made these names pay off so well.

1. Apple

It comes as no surprise that the first-ever company to reach a $1 trillion market cap is also one of the market's most rewarding tickers of all time. That's Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), of course. It reached the milestone back in 2018, and has since grown into a $4 trillion behemoth... right behind Nvidia right now.

But it wasn't always smooth sailing. Although it did well enough following its founding in 1976, it didn't become the dominant name it is today until after 2007, on the heels of the debut of its first-ever iPhone that has since come to account for half of the company's revenue.

Indeed, for a while back in the late 1990s, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. Steve Jobs took the helm again in the nick of time, overcoming what would end up being a hugely challenging period for the technology sector just a couple of years later to put the company back on track. Since then, annual revenue has improved from $7 billion to last fiscal year's $416 billion.

Image source: Getty Images.

As for the stock, a $1,000 investment in Apple at its split-adjusted 1980 IPO price of $0.10 per share would be worth $2.7 million today, with most of those gains taking shape just since 2019.

2. Netflix

In its infancy, it wasn't clear that streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) was built to last. Of course, in its infancy, it also wasn't in the streaming business -- it rented DVDs by mail when it began operations back in 1997, competing against then-powerhouse brick-and-mortar rivals like Blockbuster Video. The whole streaming thing wouldn't begin until a decade later, and even then, the entertainment industry wasn't expecting much from this new kind of on-demand/digital delivery format.

Big mistake. Netflix now leads the industry it largely created. Although the company no longer discloses its subscriber numbers, its North American viewership is still enormous. Data compiled by Evoca.tv indicates Netflix and Amazon's Prime both enjoy a leading U.S. market share at a little over 20%, jibing with data from JustWatch.

But this market-share metric still arguably understates Netflix's true domestic reach. A TV-ratings agency reports that (except for a dissimilar YouTube), Netflix by far delivers more total content to American audiences, nearly doubling the amount of monthly view-time for Walt Disney's Disney+ and Hulu combined.

Separately but simultaneously, a recent survey performed by Hub Research suggests Netflix is the default starting point for U.S. television viewers, closing the gap between it and the entirety of cable TV, and pushing it well ahead of next-nearest YouTube. Netflix is doing pretty well outside the United States too, even if its control of the overseas market isn't quite as decisive.

The streaming wars are over. Netflix won. Even for households with access to multiple streaming services, it's usually Netflix first, and then something else.

And this dominance has translated into gains for patient shareholders. A $1,000 investment made immediately following its mid-2002 public offering would technically be worth a little less than $1 million today, but only because of the stock's recent lull. Back in June of this year, that trade would have been worth a little over $1.1 million. It will certainly be worth as much again in the foreseeable future, too.

3. Walmart

Finally, add Walmart (NYSE: WMT) to your list of stocks that have turned ordinary small-time investors into millionaires. A $1,000 investment at its split-adjusted IPO price of $0.0027 would be worth a little more than $39 million today, plus whatever dividends it dished out along the way.

Granted, it would have taken enormous patience and a great deal of foresight to do this well with it. The world's biggest brick-and-mortar retailer (on pace to produce more than $700 billion worth of revenue this year) went public all the way back in 1970, when retailers were numerous as well as somewhat regional; none of them seemed particularly special then. Most people wouldn't have recognized until the mid-1990s when the company was operating nearly 2,000 stores that Walmart was destined to become the dominant name in the business.

Now its sheer reach, pricing power, and assortment is keeping it that way. Walmart estimates that 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of one of its locales, helping the retailer produce top-line growth of 5.8% during the three-month stretch ending in October... growth that its rivals like Target and Kroger just aren't seeing. Notably, the company continues to attract higher-end consumers it wasn't attracting prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The next 55 years aren't likely to be nearly as rewarding as the past 55 have been -- there's just not enough opportunity for expansion. Don't assume Walmart stock's growth is limited to its pace of revenue growth, though. This persistently profitable company is pretty generous when it comes to stock buybacks, reducing its share count by more than 40% since the mid-1990s to less than 8 billion now. This has helped drive the stock's double-digit price appreciation for several years now, and is likely to continue doing so indefinitely.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Nvidia, Target, Walmart, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Kroger. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.